Rise Up.
__________________________________________________________________
Neo-conservative “Republicans” are continuing with their private agenda even though they have been ‘outed’ by every news organization in the world and, with the implied consent of non-action on the part of the American public, these people WILL CONTINUE with their agendas while we wait in complacent unconsciousness for the past to repeat itself with investigations that bring forth facts, and for the facts to bring forth legal action, and for legal action to affect a change for the betterment of all of us. Legal action is not forthcoming and the sociopathic onward momentum of an organization that is concerned only with stealing as much money as possible continues to grind our people and our beliefs into the muddiest low ground of capitalism. All these editorialists quoted below are doing their damndest to wake us up and all we are doing is rolling over and dozing off again. We will awaken too late to change what our country is becoming. It is time to secrete true copies of The Constitution, The Bill of Rights, any and all historical documents that will prove our history and justify our future. It is time to stop trusting that good will triumph over evil in America. It is now time to act, to get off our porches and into our streets and show by a vast majority of us who are willing to confront the evil of our times that WE,THE PEOPLE are an America with heart and soul and a desire to uplift the poorest and weakest among us. It is time to show that we will no longer tolerate the evils of our times with our complacency. Rise up.
____________________________________________________________
October 4, 2005
Population Loss Altering Louisiana Political Landscape
By JEREMY ALFORD
Excerpt from Editorial
Mr. Koepp said this population shift could actually be the early stages of the deterioration of New Orleans' long-term hold over the State Legislature. "If this holds true, there will be a significant political change," he said.
There are now 21 seats in the House and Senate that encompass or touch on Orleans Parish, of 144 total seats statewide.
But if the population fails to return to the parish in coming years, New Orleans may be confined to just a few seats in each chamber through redistricting, Mr. Koepp added. That could change the state's racial and partisan balance.
If evacuees from the Ninth Ward in New Orleans - a reliable bloc of 30,000 black voters that is traditionally easy to mobilize - choose suburban or rural areas over their urban roots in coming years, it could be a political blow to Democrats, said Roy Fletcher, a political consultant from Shreveport who helped elect former Gov. Mike Foster, a Republican.
"It would give a whole lot of a stronger foothold to Republicans in the Legislature and statewide," Mr. Fletcher said. "Louisiana has always been a swing state, a purple state that's both blue and red. You take the Ninth Ward out of that equation and you get a real shot of Republicans winning statewide office."
Barry Erwin, president of a Council for a Better Louisiana, a nonpartisan nonprofit group that monitors the activities of state government, said such a change could forever alter the political landscape.
"These things are symbolic of a divide that we've always had," he said. "There's an us versus them thing. In New Orleans, it's like us, and then there's the rest of the state. Around the rest of the state, it's like us, and then there's New Orleans. This could change all of that."
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
___________________________________________________________________
October 4, 2005
Health Care for Katrina Victims
The White House has now spent nearly three weeks blocking a bipartisan effort to pay for medical care for the impoverished victims of Hurricane Katrina.
On Sept. 16, Senators Charles Grassley and Max Baucus, the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Finance Committee, introduced a bill that would extend Medicaid health coverage for five months to low-income childless adults from Katrina-struck areas.
In addition, the bill would expand the pool of traditional Medicaid recipients to include pregnant women, children and the disabled by raising the income cutoff to about twice the federal poverty line, or $25,660 for a two-person family.
The bill would also commit the federal government to paying 100 percent of victims' Medicaid bills rather than requiring the states to pay a share. Full federal payment is vital. Medical aid is integral to disaster relief and recovery and reflects a national interest in public health. Equally important, without assurance of 100 percent coverage by the federal government, states that treat evacuees could be penalized by getting stuck with all or part of the bill.
The Grassley-Baucus bill has the support of the National Governors Association; many relief agencies and charities, including the American Red Cross and Catholic Charities; and numerous health care providers, including groups that represent doctors, nurses, hospitals and nursing homes. But not the administration.
The White House has said it will reimburse health care providers who treat victims who are not covered by Medicaid. But it has not said how much the payments would be or how providers could access the so-called uncompensated care fund.
The administration also does not want the federal government to pick up the states' share for Medicaid costs incurred in Louisiana, Mississippi or Alabama in the post-Katrina period. Those three states would also have to pick up other states' costs to treat evacuees, unless the law is changed.
The Grassley-Baucus bill set the stage for efficiently providing much-needed medical care to Katrina's victims. But a few senators, widely seen to be carrying the administration's water, have thus far blocked a vote. The Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, could clear the way for a vote by the full Senate this week. What is he waiting for?
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
___________________________________________________________________
washingtonpost.com
Gulf Firms Losing Cleanup ContractsMost Money Going Outside Storm's Path
Excerpt from Article
By Griff Witte, Renae Merle and Derek WillisWashington Post Staff WritersTuesday, October 4, 2005; D01
Companies outside the three states most affected by Hurricane Katrina have received more than 90 percent of the money from prime federal contracts for recovery and reconstruction of the Gulf Coast, according to an analysis of available government data.
The analysis by The Washington Post takes into account only the first wave of federal contracts, those that had been entered in detail into government databases as of yesterday. Together they are valued at more than $2 billion. Congress has allocated more than $60 billion for the recovery effort, and the ultimate total is expected to rise far higher.
But already the trend toward out-of-state firms is clear, despite pledges by administration officials that federal funds for Katrina relief will become an engine of local economic redevelopment. Among the contracts analyzed, 3.8 percent of the money went to companies that listed an Alabama address, 2.8 percent to firms in Louisiana and just 1.8 percent went for Mississippi contractors. Taken together, that amounts to less than $200 million.
© 2005 The Washington Post Company
___________________________________________________________________
washingtonpost.com
Let FEMA Be FEMA
Tuesday, October 4, 2005; A22
Excerpt from Editorial
The correct response, in the wake of hurricanes Rita and Katrina, is not to bring in the military to do FEMA's job but to fix FEMA. Of course, the agency's civil servants are demoralized: Their role has been downgraded, their agency has been robbed of funding and they have been led by unqualified political appointees.
© 2005 The Washington Post Company
__________________________________________________________________
October 4, 2005
Faux News Is Bad News
Federal auditors have blistered the Bush administration for secretly concocting favorable news reports about itself by hiring actors to pose as journalists and slipping $240,000 in taxpayer funds to a sell-out conservative polemicist. The government till was also tapped to have political spin doctors track whether the message of President Bush and the Republican Party was being well treated in legitimate news reporting.
In its purchase of self-aggrandizing agitprop, the administration plainly violated the law against spreading "covert propaganda" at public expense, according to the report of the Government Accountability Office. More than that, Bush officials forged a cheesy new low in Washington politicians' endless bazaar of peddling public relations initiatives at taxpayers' expense.
The White House order to close down the ersatz news coverage should have been unequivocal once the real news media uncovered the hired fakers. But administration apologists continued to insist only "legitimate dissemination" of public information was at work in the under-the-table employment of Armstrong Williams, a political talk-show host, to wax breathless over the No Child Left Behind Act.
The scheme was so seamy that auditors were unable to document whether Mr. Williams actually delivered all the articles and talk-show hype that his company claimed in quietly billing the government for $186,000 worth of yessiree-Bob "news." On Friday, a spokeswoman for the current education secretary, Margaret Spellings, reacted to the report by calling these efforts "stupid, wrong and ill advised." We hope she noticed that they were also illegal.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
__________________________________________________________________
Neo-conservative “Republicans” are continuing with their private agenda even though they have been ‘outed’ by every news organization in the world and, with the implied consent of non-action on the part of the American public, these people WILL CONTINUE with their agendas while we wait in complacent unconsciousness for the past to repeat itself with investigations that bring forth facts, and for the facts to bring forth legal action, and for legal action to affect a change for the betterment of all of us. Legal action is not forthcoming and the sociopathic onward momentum of an organization that is concerned only with stealing as much money as possible continues to grind our people and our beliefs into the muddiest low ground of capitalism. All these editorialists quoted below are doing their damndest to wake us up and all we are doing is rolling over and dozing off again. We will awaken too late to change what our country is becoming. It is time to secrete true copies of The Constitution, The Bill of Rights, any and all historical documents that will prove our history and justify our future. It is time to stop trusting that good will triumph over evil in America. It is now time to act, to get off our porches and into our streets and show by a vast majority of us who are willing to confront the evil of our times that WE,THE PEOPLE are an America with heart and soul and a desire to uplift the poorest and weakest among us. It is time to show that we will no longer tolerate the evils of our times with our complacency. Rise up.
____________________________________________________________
October 4, 2005
Population Loss Altering Louisiana Political Landscape
By JEREMY ALFORD
Excerpt from Editorial
Mr. Koepp said this population shift could actually be the early stages of the deterioration of New Orleans' long-term hold over the State Legislature. "If this holds true, there will be a significant political change," he said.
There are now 21 seats in the House and Senate that encompass or touch on Orleans Parish, of 144 total seats statewide.
But if the population fails to return to the parish in coming years, New Orleans may be confined to just a few seats in each chamber through redistricting, Mr. Koepp added. That could change the state's racial and partisan balance.
If evacuees from the Ninth Ward in New Orleans - a reliable bloc of 30,000 black voters that is traditionally easy to mobilize - choose suburban or rural areas over their urban roots in coming years, it could be a political blow to Democrats, said Roy Fletcher, a political consultant from Shreveport who helped elect former Gov. Mike Foster, a Republican.
"It would give a whole lot of a stronger foothold to Republicans in the Legislature and statewide," Mr. Fletcher said. "Louisiana has always been a swing state, a purple state that's both blue and red. You take the Ninth Ward out of that equation and you get a real shot of Republicans winning statewide office."
Barry Erwin, president of a Council for a Better Louisiana, a nonpartisan nonprofit group that monitors the activities of state government, said such a change could forever alter the political landscape.
"These things are symbolic of a divide that we've always had," he said. "There's an us versus them thing. In New Orleans, it's like us, and then there's the rest of the state. Around the rest of the state, it's like us, and then there's New Orleans. This could change all of that."
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
___________________________________________________________________
October 4, 2005
Health Care for Katrina Victims
The White House has now spent nearly three weeks blocking a bipartisan effort to pay for medical care for the impoverished victims of Hurricane Katrina.
On Sept. 16, Senators Charles Grassley and Max Baucus, the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Finance Committee, introduced a bill that would extend Medicaid health coverage for five months to low-income childless adults from Katrina-struck areas.
In addition, the bill would expand the pool of traditional Medicaid recipients to include pregnant women, children and the disabled by raising the income cutoff to about twice the federal poverty line, or $25,660 for a two-person family.
The bill would also commit the federal government to paying 100 percent of victims' Medicaid bills rather than requiring the states to pay a share. Full federal payment is vital. Medical aid is integral to disaster relief and recovery and reflects a national interest in public health. Equally important, without assurance of 100 percent coverage by the federal government, states that treat evacuees could be penalized by getting stuck with all or part of the bill.
The Grassley-Baucus bill has the support of the National Governors Association; many relief agencies and charities, including the American Red Cross and Catholic Charities; and numerous health care providers, including groups that represent doctors, nurses, hospitals and nursing homes. But not the administration.
The White House has said it will reimburse health care providers who treat victims who are not covered by Medicaid. But it has not said how much the payments would be or how providers could access the so-called uncompensated care fund.
The administration also does not want the federal government to pick up the states' share for Medicaid costs incurred in Louisiana, Mississippi or Alabama in the post-Katrina period. Those three states would also have to pick up other states' costs to treat evacuees, unless the law is changed.
The Grassley-Baucus bill set the stage for efficiently providing much-needed medical care to Katrina's victims. But a few senators, widely seen to be carrying the administration's water, have thus far blocked a vote. The Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, could clear the way for a vote by the full Senate this week. What is he waiting for?
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
___________________________________________________________________
washingtonpost.com
Gulf Firms Losing Cleanup ContractsMost Money Going Outside Storm's Path
Excerpt from Article
By Griff Witte, Renae Merle and Derek WillisWashington Post Staff WritersTuesday, October 4, 2005; D01
Companies outside the three states most affected by Hurricane Katrina have received more than 90 percent of the money from prime federal contracts for recovery and reconstruction of the Gulf Coast, according to an analysis of available government data.
The analysis by The Washington Post takes into account only the first wave of federal contracts, those that had been entered in detail into government databases as of yesterday. Together they are valued at more than $2 billion. Congress has allocated more than $60 billion for the recovery effort, and the ultimate total is expected to rise far higher.
But already the trend toward out-of-state firms is clear, despite pledges by administration officials that federal funds for Katrina relief will become an engine of local economic redevelopment. Among the contracts analyzed, 3.8 percent of the money went to companies that listed an Alabama address, 2.8 percent to firms in Louisiana and just 1.8 percent went for Mississippi contractors. Taken together, that amounts to less than $200 million.
© 2005 The Washington Post Company
___________________________________________________________________
washingtonpost.com
Let FEMA Be FEMA
Tuesday, October 4, 2005; A22
Excerpt from Editorial
The correct response, in the wake of hurricanes Rita and Katrina, is not to bring in the military to do FEMA's job but to fix FEMA. Of course, the agency's civil servants are demoralized: Their role has been downgraded, their agency has been robbed of funding and they have been led by unqualified political appointees.
© 2005 The Washington Post Company
__________________________________________________________________
October 4, 2005
Faux News Is Bad News
Federal auditors have blistered the Bush administration for secretly concocting favorable news reports about itself by hiring actors to pose as journalists and slipping $240,000 in taxpayer funds to a sell-out conservative polemicist. The government till was also tapped to have political spin doctors track whether the message of President Bush and the Republican Party was being well treated in legitimate news reporting.
In its purchase of self-aggrandizing agitprop, the administration plainly violated the law against spreading "covert propaganda" at public expense, according to the report of the Government Accountability Office. More than that, Bush officials forged a cheesy new low in Washington politicians' endless bazaar of peddling public relations initiatives at taxpayers' expense.
The White House order to close down the ersatz news coverage should have been unequivocal once the real news media uncovered the hired fakers. But administration apologists continued to insist only "legitimate dissemination" of public information was at work in the under-the-table employment of Armstrong Williams, a political talk-show host, to wax breathless over the No Child Left Behind Act.
The scheme was so seamy that auditors were unable to document whether Mr. Williams actually delivered all the articles and talk-show hype that his company claimed in quietly billing the government for $186,000 worth of yessiree-Bob "news." On Friday, a spokeswoman for the current education secretary, Margaret Spellings, reacted to the report by calling these efforts "stupid, wrong and ill advised." We hope she noticed that they were also illegal.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
__________________________________________________________________
posted by FancyRage at 7:17 PM
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